Estimation of the irrigation needs of the Franciacorta winegrowing area in northern Italy for the construction of a new collective irrigation network

The aim of the study is to quantify the irrigation needs of the Fran-ciacorta wine area (province of Brescia, Italy) using the IdrAgra simulation model (https://idragra.unimi.it/). Due to climate change and, in particular, fol-lowing the drought recorded in 2022, the Lombardy region, the Irrigation Con-sortium Oglio-Mella (which governs the collective irrigation networks in the territory) and the Franciacorta Consortium (association of Franciacorta wine-makers) have reported the need for the Franciacorta vineyard areas to be irrigat-ed in the future. To estimate the necessary irrigation needs, the IdrAgra model was used, which is a conceptual model with distributed parameters capable of estimating water flow rates and volumes needed to irrigate large agricultural ar-eas. In a first phase of the study, the model was calibrated considering flow rates delivered by the Oglio-Mella Consortium to a specific irrigation district in Franciacorta irrigated by sprinkler irrigation. To parameterize irrigation man-agement in the case of drip-irrigated vineyards, a questionnaire was designed and distributed to vine growers having private farm wells and therefore irrigated vineyards. Once the model was calibrated, it was possible to estimate the flow rates needed to irrigate the vineyard area in Franciacorta alone (3350 ha irrigat-ed by drip irrigation) and the total agricultural area (drip irrigated vineyards + sprinkler irrigated arable land, for a total of 6700 ha) in a current scenario (2008-2022), and in a future scenario (2035-2064) built based on the 5th IPCC report. The results show that the water flow rates needed in the medium-term future scenario are comparable to the current ones, while the water volumes in-crease and the irrigation needs are anticipated in the season. The results are cur-rently being used to evaluate the feasibility of a collective irrigation network to irrigate the Franciacorta area that would be managed by the Oglio-Mella Con-sortium.